Theodora
by Little Miss Bones Fanatic
Summary: When an Army Private and former Army Brat becomes the next Person of Interest, Reese draws many parallels from his early life to hers and finds that he also knew her ailing mother, someone he had not seen since he left his home town. The only question Finch has is: who is her father? And why does Elias want her gone? RATED T FOR SAFETY
1. Saved in New York

1993- Fort Lewis

Emily was lying in her bed, watching someone try and find their shirt.

"I was so sure I left it down here." He murmured, more to himself than to her. It was two am, it was dark and he had woken her up after turning a small torch on to find what he was looking for.

"Try the bathroom." She told him, propping herself up on her pillows. He stepped into the small bathroom and came out successfully holding something.

"Thanks." She could hear the appreciation in his steady voice.

"Why can't you stay again?"

He looked up from concentrating on buttoning up his shirt. "I have drills this morning. Those boys know when I've come from your house."

"John…"

"What?"

"Is there a problem with you staying here?"

He knelt on the bed, "No, there isn't. I just can't stay today."

"You really need to get better at sneaking around." She yawned.

"Sure, I'll go practice between drills and lunch." He chuckled as he gave her a kiss on the forehead. "I'll see you at lunch today, right?" he walked out of the room.

"Sure!" she called out indignantly in response.

()()()()

2008

Sitting at the table, Emily was waiting for 4.30 to come around. It did, and the sound of a car pulling into the driveway and leaving again meant that her daughter was home.

"Hey mum, guess what?!" a teenager waltzed on into the dining room excitedly, but stopped when she saw her mother's face. "Mum… what's wrong?"

Emily told her daughter to sit, but she refused. Stubbornness was not a trait she got from her.

"Theodora Gianna Coates, sit down." Emily ordered. Theodora did as she was told, scared that her mother used her full name. "I went to Madigan today." Madigan Army Medical Centre was in Fort Lewis, the Army base Emily had been living on for years, even before her daughter came. "Honey they had some news for me." Theodora couldn't see if there was anything wrong, but continued to listen anyway. "They told me I had cancer."

"What? How?" Theodora started to cry.

"It's one of those things we can't control Thea. You know that." Thea was Theodora's nickname and the name she usually went by with her friends.

"No! Go get retested or whatever! You're healthy! You don't have cancer!" She demanded. Emily put her hand up to stop her and watched the self-destruction of a teenager. "I don't have anyone else mum! You can't!" Watching her daughter stand up and storm off in tears, Emily knew she had to get her affairs in order.

()()()()

2012- Now

Theodora Coates was driving through Watertown, New York state. She was recently sent to Fort Drum, but wanted to live in town instead of on base, so that she had some freedom. Coming to her house, she saw a black car parked across the road. Pulling in and still being suspicious of the car, Theodora went to go into the house but was stopped by a young guy.

"Uh, hi, sorry, I'm a little lost. Do you know where the public square is?"

This took her by surprise. "Uh, yeah, you go down that end of the street, turn left and follow it up. It goes straight to the square."

He smiled. "Thanks."

She unlocked her door and went in, but then… it was darkness.

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Awakening, Theodora knew she wasn't in her car, or in Watertown. There were cars zipping past everywhere and the sound of car horns were always going off.

"Where's the drop point?"

"Down by the river."

Hearing this made her want to freak out. She knew she was in the boot of a car. Most boots had some sort of pop mechanism in case there was an accident. Feeling a pull lever, she did and the booth popped open. They were at a stop light so all the cars behind her were stopped. Jumping out and scaring the living daylights out of the man in the car behind the one she was getting out of, she sprinted down a busy retail street. Stopping at a small, unknowing coffee store, she knew she still had money on her.

"Thank god for bras." She pulled a note out surreptitiously and sat down. A woman came over and she asked for a coffee. As it came, she thought about what had happened. She had been abducted from her house, knocked out, drugged and she woke up in a car boot in New York City. Now she sat, with a coffee and a paper in front of her. She was shaking a little, but so much to alert anyone. Reading the paper, she noticed a man enter the diner. He wore a suit and a trench coat over the top. He was sort of tan, naturally. He looked ex-military, but she couldn't be sure. He looked at the menu overhead before making his way past Theodora's table, causing her to go rather statue like and frozen with fear he was one of them. He slipped her a note as he walked by and sat in the booth behind her.

_Stay calm._ Was all it said. She didn't know if he was with them or not, but she took a deep breath anyway.

"Good." She heard him murmur. "There are two men sitting at a booth at the door. They came in moments after I did, but you didn't notice. You were too busy staring at me."

She saw them eating burgers, not caring for what she was doing. "Who are you? Who are they? What is going on?" she whispered desperately back.

"My name is John. They're trying to kill you. Focus." He kept using the same level voice. She stopped asking questions and waited. "You're going to pay for your coffee and you're going to leave. If they notice and follow you out, walk into the alleyway beside this diner."

"Alleyway? Not the…"

He cut her off. "Your safety is more important than that of the safety of an alleyway. Do you understand." She nodded, not knowing if he knew she was nodding. "Good. Go."

Walking off and paying, she went out the door. Just like the guy said, the other two followed her out. Finding the alleyway, she slipped into it, feeling the men still following her. Turning and seeing them advance; she punched the first one in the face and made him topple over, moaning in pain as blood streamed down his face. The second went to hit her back, but was then hit in the back. As he folded over, John the mystery man stood behind him.

She stood there for a moment until John looked behind his shoulder. A car was parked neatly at the entrance, as if it was covering the incident from passers-by.

"What now?" she asked, wondering if reinforcements were coming.

"You should come with me until my associate and I can figure out how to stop these people." He led her to the car.

"Do you even know who I am?"

He gave a slight huff of amusement. "No. My associate does though."

**Don't own a thing =D **


	2. Stuff I'm Not Proud Of

1994

Emily was sitting at her table, holding a little baby in her arms. There was silence, for the first time in an hour and a half. It was six am by the looks of the clock. Deciding to get up, she went to her baby's room and placed it in the cot.

"Theodora, it's gonna be hard. But we can do it. I know we can." Emily murmured. Hearing a knock at her door, she knew it wasn't the baby sitter. Grabbing her weapon, she tiptoed to the door and looked through the peephole before taking a sigh of relief. "John."

There stood a rather handsome soldier. "Hello Emily. I hadn't seen you around lately. I was just making sure…" he heard a cry and looked at her confusedly, "you're ok…"

Emily looked at him, distressed. "Come in." she shut the door behind her. "Just… stay here." She wandered off to the back of the house and came back. This time Theodora was in her arms, awake and alert.

"Emily…" He looked at his friend confusedly.

"This is Theodora, John. She's my daughter. That's why I haven't being doing my time-in-grade. I've been out on leave."

She handed the small bundle to him and invited him to sit on a chair. He did and looked at the little girl. She gurgled with happiness and gave a gummy grin to him. He looked up and saw Emily still upset. "What do you need?"

()()()()

1997

"Thea, no, no, don't touch that." John steered a small, mobile person away from the drinks in the grocery shop. "Don't run Theodora, you'll fall." He warned her as he saw her little blonde curls bounce as she sprinted down the aisle, causing John to dart after her. Rounding the corner, he saw her on the floor in tears. "I told you." he picked her up.

"Ow." She sobbed to him, putting her head on his shoulder. She was wearing a little pink summer dress and little ballet flats.

"Yeah, ow. Come on, your mum would have to be around here somewhere." He started looking up each aisle and saw her looking at cereal. "Houston, we've had a spillage."

Emily looked at him with a smile. "You let her run around in here didn't you?" he had the perfect poker face, but she knew he did. "Well, your spillage, you clean it." She picked a box up and continued down the aisle.

John held the little girl up and saw little tears still running down her face. "Thea, now you got us both in trouble."

"No I did not."

"Yes you did. Now, we need to work together to get back on your mum's good side. I'm thinking… ice cream?" she nodded with a huge grin. "And…"

"Cake!"

"Ok, ice cream and cake. But you have to Shh." He put a finger to his lips. "You can't tell her." She nodded. "Ok, let's go."

()()()()

2012

Finch was looking at the computer screen. "She seems to have lived in one spot her entire life. Well, up until recently, of course."

"Theodora Coates?" John asked himself. He knew that name from somewhere. Where exactly seemed to have slipped his mind. "A girl her age would have to have a social networking page of some sort…"

"She does. Theodora enjoys sports, hanging out with her friends and spending time with her mother. She updates her life every once and a while. There are photos from parties, school events, a home album. She doesn't put too much up other than that."

"Where did she live?"

"Fort Lewis Army Base." Finch waited a beat. "That was where you began in the army… you may know her parents."

"Her parents?" he looked up and saw Theodora staring at him. "Just… dig deeper." He walked over to where she was and sat across from her.

"Parent." She corrected him. "I was raised by my mother. She never mentioned my dad and I never wanted to ask. It seemed painful for her to even talk about her early Army life."

John noticed her dirty blonde hair, which was cut in a hairstyle that sat midway between her shoulders and her ears and her lightly freckled face. He then noticed she wasn't small in the height department either.

"What Bases did you and your mother live on?"

"Base, for my mother. She is a Fort Lewis soldier, always was. I was there last year but I moved to Fort Drum this year to be closer to her."

"She is in the state?" Reese had no idea how Finch didn't know this.

"Yeah. She's just in a house with a nurse at the moment, but she was in hospital. Cancer. She's had it twice in four years." She thought about it. "She was an Army Sergeant First Class when… she was honourably discharged. She didn't want to but the Army said it was that or medically discharged. They're helping pay for New York."

"So was that why you came to New York State?" she nodded.

"You seem like the military type." She commented. "Is this your day job or…"

"I was once in the military. Then I worked for the government. Now I work for Mr Finch. I help those everyone else overlooks."

"Why me though? Why did they want to kill me?"

"I don't know, Theodora. I don't know. We're working on that. Do you want to see your mother? I can accompany you so that you're safe."

Hearing Finch protesting about safety and how much effort it took for him to actually get Theodora, Reese waited for her answer.

"Sure, I guess. She hasn't seen me in a while."

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Reese pulled up and turned the car off. It was a residential part of the city, the small house sitting on a smaller block of land that had a small bit of grass out the front. Following Theodora's movements of getting out of the car, he waited behind her as she knocked on the door. A young woman answered and smiled when she saw her.

"Thea! It's been quite a while." The nurse let her in and saw John. "Who is your friend?"

"That's John. Come on in." Theodora motioned for him to come in. "Go have a coffee or something. Ally makes great coffee." She disappeared into another room, leaving John looking at Ally.

"I'm fine, thank you." he walked over to the door that she went through and sat in a seat.

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"Mum, stuff is getting a little hectic. I don't know if I'll be able to come around for a bit." She sat beside the bed.

Emily looked at her daughter disparagingly. "Is that new Sergeant being an imbicile again and putting you on weekends? Tell him you can't. Tell him your mother is a Staff Sergeant and…"

She stopped her mother from over doing herself. "No, no, no, nothing like that. I'm on Liberty for a while. Someone tried hurting me and my current guard believes they're going to try again."

"Guard?"

"His name is John, he looks ex-military and he looks as though he's eaten more than a few lemons in his lifetime. He saved me this morning."

Emily looked at her daughter in wonder. "John who? Is it just your boyfriend and you're too scared to show him to me?" She gave a small giggle.

"No! No. John," she stuck her head out the door, "come show my mother that you aren't my boyfriend!"

He was rather hesitant at first, but her face invited him in. Walking in and standing at the door, John looked at the frail woman in the bed and almost let his surprise get the better of him. It was Emily Coates.

Emily knew him too. She gave a small smile and told Theodora to go see Ally. She did as she was told, leaving John and Emily alone.

"Emily…" John took Theodora's empty seat. "I knew I recognised your daughter's name."

"She's just like her father. Other than the fact she looks a little like me. Before all this, of course." She looked all over him. "You dropped off the grid… I wanted to call, I wanted to write, and I wanted to send pictures of Thea growing up… But…" she started to find it hard to breathe, the excitement getting too much for her. John gave her the oxygen mask that sat beside her bed. "You… just… left." She glared, getting her point across.

John bowed his head. "I know. I'm sorry. But I had to do some stuff."

"Stuff you're… not… proud of."

"No. Some of it I'm not proud of."

She looked at him sadly. "Do you… have… family?" she watched as he shook his head. "John…"

"I just… It can't be fitted into my lifestyle Emily."

"Thea… fitted… into mine."

"Mine too remember?"

"When… you… weren't gone. Stupid… Army." She gave a smile while taking breaths.

He also gave a small, sad smile back. "You don't have long do you?" Emily shook her head. "Theodora is in danger." He watched as she focused in on him. "I'm going to protect her until her life isn't in danger. Then, she can go home."

Emily shook her head. "No."

"No?"

"Get her out of the Army." She said in one fluid sentence. "It's honourable… but she needs… a life… outside the military." John looked at her questionably. "I don't…"

"You don't want her ending up like you." he realised. "Emily, I can't."

She grabbed his hand. "John. Yes you can. I know… you can."

He realised he didn't _really _have a choice. Of course he could just say no and have it over and done with, but Emily was one his of closest comrades and friends from Port Lewis.

"What do you want me to do? You know I can't do…" he heard a car pull up outside. "Emily does anyone else live here other than you and Ally?" she shook her head. "I'm going to turn this light out. You need to be very calm for me." She nodded and watched fretfully as John turned into his operative mode.

Coming out of the room and shutting the door, he flicked the lights out in the lounge room and went to the kitchen, where Ally and Theodora sat talking. "I'd go into a spare room. We have company." Immediately they left to Ally's room. Flicking those lights out too, Reese waited for the doors to open. When they did, he was ready.

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Twenty minutes later, two men were on the floor, Detective Joss Carter was interviewing Theodora and John was hiding in Emily's room.

"I can just say whoever did this is a hero." She told Carter, who nodded.

"Ok, well I hope your mother is ok after all of this. Here's my card if you think of anything else." She and two other police officers hauled the two perpetrators out the door and Ally shut it, a grin on her face.

John was talking to Emily again, who was starting to sleep.

"You need to watch out for her." She mumbled.

"I can probably do that."

"Help her." John knew she was just going to list things she knew he would do. "Tell her who her father is." He froze. She knew he knew who it was. "Where he is. Why."

He waited for a moment before sighing in pain. One of the men had a knife and managed to get a few on him. "Thea will fix you. She was a doctor last year." She held out her hand, which he took. "Tell her stories about when she was young. Tell her how she does know you." she then fell asleep.

"Night Emily."

**Ok, so just a few things to clear up. I'm not American, nor do I know how the US Army works, so anything I have gotten wrong, I'm terribly sorry for it and I will fix it up. I'll post every once and a while, but exams are coming up and they do have precedence -.-. I don't own POI, or any of its characters, but I did create Theodora Gianna Coates and Emily Coates. Have a great day or night! **


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